Blackening a Stainless Slide?

Hey gang,
I am looking for a good way to Blacken the Stainless Slide on one of my 1911s. Also is there any way to fill in front cocking serrations?

Thanks
Matt

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bountyhunter

February 19, 2003, 06:44 PM

I think stainless can be black chromed. It can't be "blued" in the traditional hot blue method.

Filling in serrations sounds like welding and grinding (and a lot of money).

Sean Smith

February 19, 2003, 07:19 PM

You can't really fill them in, but you can cut them off & it looks pretty cool that way.

http://www.burnscustom.com/images/119.jpg

For a black stainless slide, Robar has a process to blacken stainless, or you can add one of the polymer finishes with no problem (e.g. Roguard, Black-T, Gunkote, CobraCoat). No bluing or parkerizing, though.

My understanding is that black chrome is soft, and generally a crummy finish.

Kahr carrier

February 20, 2003, 09:59 AM

Mr Smith are those Heinie sights on your Kimber??

BigG

February 20, 2003, 11:22 AM

One way to blacken, maybe, would be to copper plate the piece and apply that sulfurous stuff. Turn it black as tar. Don't know if plating would stick to SS? Then you could parkerize over the plating coz I think it would stick then. Just a thought...

I had my Glock 30 and SA 1911A1 coated with Teflon. Although both have been done with silver Teflon, a friend had his stainless Kimber coated with black Teflon. His pistol looks really cool.

The Teflon coating is really tuff. Our gun smith does an Excellent job coating firearms with this stuff. It is really something to see.

I don't have any pics of my 1911 right now, but I do have two of my Glock 30. The Teflon is even better looking in person than it is in my pictures. Check it out and see what you think.

http://glocks.com/1/265.jpg

http://glocks.com/1/266.jpg

My pistols were coated by John Salyers, a local gun smith. If anyone would like his contact information, send me an email or PM and I will get it to you.

Badger Arms

February 24, 2003, 07:26 PM

Remington installed stainless barrels on its magnum rifles for a while. IIRC, they first copper plated the barrel, then they iron plated the copper, then they blued it. Mine matches the receiver finish perfectly. The gun shoots beautifully too. It's full-length bedded.

I think the best method would be to Black Chrome it or perhaps a black teflon coating. Either way would work.

isaidme

February 24, 2003, 08:09 PM

Robar blackens stainless guns

BigG

February 24, 2003, 10:45 PM

I believe Winchester did what Badger Arms said when, back in the day, they found they had to put a stainless steel bbl on their 220 Swift to allow it to have enough bbl life for the proud owner to sight it in. ;)

COHIBA

March 11, 2003, 05:37 PM

you could always anodize the SS and then polish the slats. kimber calls it eclipse.

Harold Mayo

March 12, 2003, 12:09 PM

You can oxidize the stainless steel. There are solutions that you can buy to do it yourself (do a Google search and you can find several). There are probably plenty of places that will do it for you. I have a stainless Kimber that I am probably going to send to a place called Quality Plating in Nashville, TN. The guy that I talked to said the oxidation process that they use on the "stainless" steel ends up with metal that looks like the slide on a Sig which is, I realized, blackened stainless steel. Funny how that works out. Quality Plating's price was VERY reasonable but they don't have an FFL since firearms aren't their big thing. It would have to be shipped to a local FFL if you didn't live near Nashville. I'll post a picture when I have it done.

Riss

March 18, 2003, 01:24 AM

Caswell Plating has the stuff you need. www.caswellplating.com

Erik Jensen

March 22, 2003, 07:24 PM

couldn't you have it powdercoated??:confused:

basicblur

April 8, 2003, 09:50 AM

Check the thread out below. Look for the 3rd post from myself.
Got two Sigmas, one with a Melonite slide (carbon steel) and one with a stainless slide, which I'm thinking 'bout having coated (don't like shiny guns)
HTH
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16217&highlight=melonite

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